Book contents
- Frontmatter
- A PREFATORY LETTER
- Contents
- LAY SERMONS, ADDRESSES, AND REVIEWS
- I ON THE ADVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE
- II EMANCIPATION—BLACK AND WHITE
- III A LIBERAL EDUCATION: AND WHERE TO FIND IT
- IV SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION: NOTES OF AN AFTER-DINNER SPEECH
- V ON THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SCIENCES
- VI ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY
- VII ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE
- VIII THE SCIENTIFIC ASPECTS OF POSITIVISM
- IX ON A PIECE OF CHALK
- X GEOLOGICAL CONTEMPORANEITY AND PERSISTENT TYPES OF LIFE
- XI GEOLOGICAL REFORM
- XII THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES
- XIII CRITICISMS ON “THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES”
- XIV ON DESCARTES' “DISCOURSE TOUCHING THE METHOD OF USING ONE'S REASON RIGHTLY AND OF SEEKING SCIENTIFIC TRUTH”
VI - ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 August 2010
- Frontmatter
- A PREFATORY LETTER
- Contents
- LAY SERMONS, ADDRESSES, AND REVIEWS
- I ON THE ADVISABLENESS OF IMPROVING NATURAL KNOWLEDGE
- II EMANCIPATION—BLACK AND WHITE
- III A LIBERAL EDUCATION: AND WHERE TO FIND IT
- IV SCIENTIFIC EDUCATION: NOTES OF AN AFTER-DINNER SPEECH
- V ON THE EDUCATIONAL VALUE OF THE NATURAL HISTORY SCIENCES
- VI ON THE STUDY OF ZOOLOGY
- VII ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE
- VIII THE SCIENTIFIC ASPECTS OF POSITIVISM
- IX ON A PIECE OF CHALK
- X GEOLOGICAL CONTEMPORANEITY AND PERSISTENT TYPES OF LIFE
- XI GEOLOGICAL REFORM
- XII THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES
- XIII CRITICISMS ON “THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES”
- XIV ON DESCARTES' “DISCOURSE TOUCHING THE METHOD OF USING ONE'S REASON RIGHTLY AND OF SEEKING SCIENTIFIC TRUTH”
Summary
Natural History is the name familiarly applied to the study of the properties of such natural bodies as minerals, plants, and animals; the sciences which embody the knowledge man has acquired upon these subjects are commonly termed Natural Sciences, in contradistinction to other, so-called “physical” sciences; and those who devote themselves especially to the pursuit of such sciences have been, and are, commonly termed “Naturalists.”
Linnæus was a naturalist in this wide sense, and his “Systerna Naturæ” was a work upon natural history, in the broadest acceptation of the term; in it, that great methodizing spirit embodied all that was known in his time of the distinctive characters of minerals, animals, and plants. But the enormous stimulus which Linnaeus gave to the investigation of nature soon rendered it impossible that any one man should write another “Systema Naturæ” and extremely difficult for any one to become a naturalist such as Linnæus was.
Great as have been the advances made by all the three branches of science, of old included under the title of natural history, there can be no doubt that zoology and botany have grown in an enormously greater ratio than mineralogy; and hence, as I suppose, the name of “natural history” has gradually become more and more definitely attached to these prominent divisions of the subject, and by “naturalist” people have meant more and more distinctly to imply a student of the structure and functions of living beings.
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- Lay Sermons, Addresses and Reviews , pp. 104 - 131Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1870